Making Liberalism New

American Intellectuals, Modern Literature, and the Rewriting of a Political Tradition
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4214-4091-0
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 424 g

Reihe: Hopkins Studies in Modernism

A revisionist history of American liberalism, from the Great Depression to the Cold War.

Finalist of the MSA First Book Prize by The Modernist Studies Association

In Making Liberalism New, Ian Afflerbach traces the rise, revision, and fall of a modern liberalism in the United States, establishing this intellectual culture as distinct from classical predecessors as well as the neoliberalism that came to power by century's end. Drawing on a diverse archive that includes political philosophy, legal texts, studies of moral psychology, government propaganda, and presidential campaign materials, Afflerbach also delves into works by Tess Slesinger, Richard Wright, James Agee, John Dewey, Lionel Trilling, and Vladimir Nabokov. Throughout the book, he shows how a reciprocal pattern of influence between modernist literature and liberal intellectuals helped drive the remarkable writing and rewriting of this keyword in American political life.

From the 1930s into the 1960s, Afflerbach writes, modern American fiction exposed and interrogated central concerns in liberal culture, such as corporate ownership, reproductive rights, color-blind law, the tragic limits of social documentary, and the dangerous allure of a heroic style in political leaders. In response, liberal intellectuals borrowed key values from modernist culture—irony, tragedy, style—to reimagine the meaning and ambitions of American liberalism.

Drawing together political theory and literary history, Making Liberalism New argues that the rise of American liberal culture helped direct the priorities of modern literature. At the same time, it explains how the ironies of narrative form offer an ideal medium for readers to examine conceptual problems in liberal thought. These problems—from the abortion debate to the scope of executive power—remain an indelible feature of American politics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Afflerbach, Ian

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Liberalismus, Libertarismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Konservativismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface: What We Talk about When We Talk about Liberalism
Introduction: Making Liberalism New
Part 1: A Liberal Modernism
1. Liberalism Incorporated: Intellectuals, Abortion, and the Critique of Possessive Individualism
2. Racial Liberalism: Native Son and the Problem of "Color-Blind" Law
Part 2: A Modern Liberalism
3. The Inward Turn: Tragedy, Documentary, and the Making of the Postwar Liberal Imagination
4. Ending in Style: JFK, Nabokov, and the Triumph of a Liberal Aesthetic
Conclusion: What's Left of Liberalism? (Or: What's So New about Neoliberalism?)
Works Cited
Notes
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Afflerbach, Ian
Ian Afflerbach is an assistant professor of American literature at the University of North Georgia.

Ian Afflerbach is an assistant professor of American literature at the University of North Georgia.